A Demon in Time
by Cateil
Summary: What if Yukina was the one who knew they were twins, but Hiei didn't? A Hiei/Yukina role reversal story in which Yukina makes a decision that will change everything for her to save him...but at what cost? YukinaxKuwabara, HieixKurama. Part 2 of "Time Makes Demons Of Us All" series. Cross posted from AO3. Rated M for violence in later chapters.


Yukina shivered despite the balmy summer night air.

It had been three days since she had discovered that Hiei was her brother at the moment of his death. She and Kurama had been the only ones present, and Hiei's final parting gift had been the shedding of a single black hiruiseki stone, which Kurama had in turn given to her.

She pulled the stone from inside her shirt, staring numbly into its glimmering face. She had put it on a cord necklace, just as her mother had done when she had given Yukina the stone from her birth.

She closed her eyes as she felt a pang in her chest, and gripped the stone tightly.

 _Why didn't you ever tell me?_ she wondered.

The sound of one of the temple's door panels sliding open broke her train of thought. She quickly tucked the gem away and turned to see Kazuma stepping outside, his facial expression drawn and somber.

She turned back to face the dark stretch of forest outside the temple as Kazuma took a seat next to her.

"Kurama just got back," he said after a few minutes of silence. Yukina nodded in response. Kurama had taken Hiei's body to Reikai shortly after his death to see if there was anything that Koenma could do to bring him back.

There wasn't.

The poison from the blade that had caused Hiei's untimely death and Kurama's eye injury had been teeming with youki from the demon that they had been sent to track down, causing the poison to absolutely decimate Hiei's body within a short period of time. Botan had returned with the news that there was nothing that Koenma or anyone else could do- his body was continually decomposing at a rapid pace even after his death. Even if they did bring him back, his body would be unable to support his soul and would eventually fail.

Kazuma placed a hand on her shoulder. "I could bring you some tea?" he offered.

Yukina shook her head. "No, that's okay. Thank you. I think I'll go see how Kurama is doing." She patted Kazuma's hand as she stood up. "Are you coming inside?"

"I think I'll stay out here for a while, actually." He gave her a small smile.

She attempted a smile in return, but it felt more like a grimace. She felt as if her face had forgotten how to smile, and wondered if she would ever do it again.

Heading back inside, she felt her stomach begin to churn. Kurama had returned, but what other news would he have? Surely there was more that had happened besides what they had learned from Botan...but she was almost afraid to find out.

 _No,_ she corrected herself. She needed to know what had happened. She would not be frightened. She had spent all this time in the dark about her brother's identity, and now she _needed_ answers. She had always hoped to find her twin, and now that she had...he was lost to her. She had so many questions! Why hadn't she noticed their similarities before? Where had he been while they were separated, and what had his life been like?

Why hadn't Hiei ever told her?

She sensed Kurama's youki and followed the familiar animal energy, leading her to one of the bedrooms. She knocked softly on the door. "Kurama? It's me," she called out of politeness. She knew the fox would be able to sense her outside the door right away.

"Come in." His voice sounded tired and muffled. She opened the panel and stepped inside, sliding it closed behind her.

Kurama was seated in a chair facing the window, a blanket draped over his shoulders and a mug between his hands in his lap. Yukina approached cautiously, mentally bracing herself. "What happened in Reikai?" she asked, her voice wavering slightly.

Kurama took a sip from his mug, and Yukina got a small whiff of steam- blackberry tea. He looked at the mug studiously for a moment. It was a winter mug: blue, with little white snowflakes and snow men in cheery top hats and brightly colored scarves pictured on it. "Kuwabara made this," he said finally. "It was very kind of him, although he isn't as good at presentation as you are, I'm afraid." He chuckled, but it was hollow sounding, and a sense of dread began to creep over her. She stared at the tiny snow men. Their smiling coal faces seemed to be mocking her misery, their perpetual joy frozen in ceramic eternity a jest at her grief.

 _She set the tray down on the kitchen counter, flipped the faucet on and poured both cups of tea and the pot down the drain. What a waste of good tea. The smell of blackberry wafted up, mixing with the scent of the liquid lemon soap as she squirted it onto a sponge and began to clean up. She smiled a bit despite herself, thinking about how much she enjoyed some of the little human things, like the colors in the sunrise, or the way human soap bubbled up and became frothy and came in dozens of different scents. They didn't have those things on the floating island._

 _She set the little cups off to the side in the dish rack, and turned to grab the pot. She had just begun to rinse it out when she heard the sound of pounding footsteps coming down the hall, but they were too heavy to be Shizuru's-_

Yukina blinked hard, trying to clear the memory from her mind. She took a shaky breath, and walked over by the window, parking herself directly in front of Kurama. She needed to know whatever he knew. And he was going to tell her.

"Kurama," she tried again. His missing eye was now covered with a patch, and his good eye remained downcast, fixed on his mug. "I need to know. Please. What happened to my brother's body?"

Kurama's grip on the mug tightened. "It's gone," he said softly.

Alarm bells started ringing in her head. "Gone? What do you mean?"

Kurama took in a deep breath. "I brought him to Reikai, but Koenma said that too much damage had been done to his body for him to come back. He wouldn't have been able to function. I thought...maybe it could be repaired, somehow." He cleared his throat. "But we discovered that even as we spoke, his body was still decomposing. If there was to be any chance of saving him, we had to find a way to keep him in some sort of stasis.

"I remembered that Mukuro had kept him in some sort of restoration chamber once before, when he fought Shigure. I was sure that she would do it again, I just needed to get there in time." His voice began to crack. "But I was too late."

"What do you mean?" she whispered, horrified.

He lifted his eye to look at her, and she gasped as she _felt_ the anguish that swam behind his bright green iris pouring out at her. "He started to crumble away in my arms," he said, a tear sliding down his cheek. "He just...turned to dust. And then he was gone."

She took a step back, Kurama's words slamming into her as surely as if he had physically hit her. She had been holding onto a small sliver of hope that Kurama would have been able to find a way to save him, that even after his death, there would still be a chance to bring her brother back.

And now...he was really gone.

Stones clattered to the floor as grief washed over her, her chest seizing up, her stomach rolling with nausea. She sank to her knees. "No, this can't be!" she cried. "I just found out! He can't be gone! He can't be..."

Kurama slid out of the chair and onto the floor beside her, and wrapped his arms around her. She buried her face in his chest, his shirt absorbing the tears that stung at her eyes. He laid his head against the top of hers, and she could smell the salt from his tears as they trickled into her hair.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. His arms tightened around her, and she let herself lean into his embrace. His skin was warm, and she could feel his youki coursing just beneath the surface. She knew that Kurama was a very powerful demon, and the familiar sense of that power gave her small comfort. As much as she loved living with Kazuma and Shizuru, she sometimes missed the sense of having other demons around.

Her throat tightened as she realized that Hiei would never be in his mate's embrace again. That he would never feel the love of those surrounding him ever again.

And they had indeed loved him; all of them did.

At the time of his death, Botan had returned within the hour with the news that Koenma would of course look into anything he could do to help save him- only to discover that he had already passed. Not to be deterred, she instructed Kurama to accompany her with Hiei's body to Reikai. He immediately scooped up the little fire demon, ready to leave that very moment.

As they had headed out, they were met by a collective gasp of the group that had gathered in the hallway: Kazuma, Yusuke, and Shizuru. All three were mortified, but parted quickly to let Kurama and Botan through.

Kazuma had run over to Yukina immediately, and she had let herself fall into his arms. She had flinched as Yusuke punched a hole in the wall, and tears streaked down his face as he had started screaming.

After the initial shock, and lots of yelling and crying, Kazuma and Yusuke started to trade stories of their time spent with Hiei while they waited for Kurama and Botan's return. Yukina had sat and listened, absorbing every word that they said.

Both of them had a great deal of respect for her brother and spoke highly of him, and she felt honored that he was her twin. She also felt a twinge of loneliness for him- as much as they admired him, neither of them really knew Hiei personally. Kurama was the only one to ever get close to him that they knew of.

And now she would never have that chance.

"Did you know that he was my brother, Kurama?" she mumbled into his shirt.

"Yes."

She frowned. "Why didn't he tell me?"

Kurama paused. "He would hate if I told you this...but I think he was afraid that you would reject him as your brother."

She pulled away and pegged him with a hard stare. "But that's ridiculous. I would never have done that."

"I know," Kurama said simply.

Yukina pressed her lips in a flat line and drew her knees up to her chin. She didn't like his answer. If Kurama knew, why hadn't he just convinced Hiei that he was wrong about her?

"It's more complicated than you think," Kurama added. "Hiei is...iwas/i...a complex individual."

She hummed in acknowledgment, but didn't say anything.

"I think I'm going to retire for the night," Kurama said as he stood up. He offered his hand out to her.

She didn't want to take it, as she felt a little resentful towards him now. But that would have been rude, and in the end her manners that were hard wired into her won. She grasped his hand and he pulled her up, and she walked briskly out of the room without sparing a look over her shoulder.

Which now that she thought about it, was probably also rude.

She tried to squash that feeling down somewhere inside of her; why should she feel badly about being impolite to Kurama, when he had kept this secret from her the entire time? Anger simmered in her gut; towards herself, towards Kurama, and a little bit towards Hiei. She felt a stinging guilt at her anger towards her brother...after all, he had just been killed.

Her aura was a storming cloud of roiling misery and irritation as she stomped into her bedroom she shared with Kazuma. His eyes widened, his spiritual awareness lighting up his emotional grid in response to her own.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, his brows furrowed with worry.

"Not really," she muttered. He lifted his hands up in a defensive position, and she sighed. "I'm sorry, Kazuma. I don't mean to snap at you. It's just...I can't believe that Kurama knew, and didn't tell me before."

Kazuma cocked his head slightly, confused. "Uh...didn't tell you what before, exactly?"

She studied his brown eyes, searching for any hint of deceit. After all, if Kurama knew, then who else knew?

But all she saw was genuine concern. He didn't know.

"If I tell you this, you have to promise me you won't get upset at Hiei." she said seriously.

He closed the distance between them and grabbed her hands, kissing the back of each one. "You can always tell me anything."

She cocked an eyebrow. "You remember how I have a twin brother?" He nodded. "And how I've been looking for him for a long time?" He nodded again. "Well apparently, he's been here all along. Hiei is my brother."

Kazuma blinked a few times, dumbfounded. "You're joking, right?"

She gave him the most serious 'are you kidding me' face she could muster. "No, I'm serious."

His eye twitched, and he released her hands, balling his hands into fists. "That little shrimp! I should bring him back myself so I can kick his ass!"

"Kazuma!" she scolded. "You said you wouldn't get upset!"

"I didn't actually say that," he mumbled, huffing. "That's just not right."

Yukina let out a defeated sigh. "Yeah...tell me about it."

Kazuma opened his mouth to say something else, but thought better of it and clapped it shut. He folded his arms and frowned. "So did Kurama say anything else?"

"Not really," she said. She scrubbed her hands over her face. Her eyes were puffy, and she felt exhausted. "Not anything new, anyway. He tried to go to Mukuro for help, I guess, but he didn't make it in time." She walked over to the closet and pulled out a pair of pajamas. She stripped out of the shirt and skirt she had been wearing and tossed them on the floor, too tired to deal with putting them away properly. She pulled on the tee shirt and shorts and headed over to the bed, ready to go to sleep and pretend like none of this had happened for the next eight hours.

Kazuma was already dressed for bed and climbed in next to her, pulling her up against his chest. He reached over and clicked the lamp light on the night stand off, plunging the room into darkness.

She closed her eyes and exhaled loudly. The scent of the soap Kazuma used wafted up into her nose, and she burrowed her face into his chest. She loved the way that their scents mingled in their bed together, the earthy smell of human and crisp winter air of the koorime blending together beautifully. For a moment she felt at home, in the arms of Kazuma safely returned to her-

Her eyes flew open as she saw Hiei's broken body on the floor again in her mind.

Sensing her unease, Kazuma began stroking her hair. "I'm really sorry, Yukina," he said, his words floating in the darkness. "I know you really wanted to find your brother. And Hiei...was a good guy. Under all that tough guy stuff, you know. In the beginning, I didn't trust him. But he always came through for us. And he was loyal. Heh, after all this time, when Urameshi called the gang back together, he still came. He and Kurama had our backs when it really mattered."

Yukina smiled a little. She always admired Kazuma's speeches of the heart.

"You said Kurama tried to get to Mukuro?" She nodded. "I wonder what for?" He muttered.

"He said it was for the restoration chamber she has," Yukina yawned. "Apparently she used it on him before. Kurama said they needed to suspend him in some kind of stasis."

Kazuma hummed. "I guess that makes sense," he mused. "Kurama said that knife was laced with that demon's energy, some kind of time accelerant thingy."

 _Time accelerant._

The cogs in Yukina's brain began to turn. "What do you mean?" she asked, trying to mask her voice as sounding offhanded.

"I'm probably not really supposed to tell you because we didn't catch him."

 _Damn._

"But..." he started, and her heart skipped. "I guess I will anyway. Just don't tell anyone else, okay?" She nodded. "So this demon...he's been hunted by Reikai for a long time I guess, except there's hardly any information about him. According to Mukuro, he's able to go backwards or forwards in time to get away any time anyone gets too close to him."

 _"Koenma and Mukuro had been watching him for some time apparently, but the information we had was still insufficient. According to Mukuro, this demon can manipulate reality- even go back in time. It was imperative that he be eliminated as soon as possible, because no one knows what he has already gone back and changed. That's how he's stayed off Reikai's radar for so long; any time someone gets close to catching him or learns too much information, he manipulates the time line to get away."_

Yukina swallowed. "But...shouldn't that be impossible?"

"Apparently not for this guy," Kazuma grumbled. "He has this big knife laced with poison. He uses his energy to fast forward time in the wound for anyone who gets hit by it, which is why Kurama had to cut out his own eye."

Her stomach turned a little at the thought of Kurama's missing eye. "So...he got away, right? Do you know where he went?"

Kazuma shook his head. "I'm surprised that we even still know this much, to be honest, although I guess it might all be different tomorrow. He kept saying that we had fought him before, but nobody remembered ever seeing him. But he knew stuff about us. And he gave us...uh, a lot of details about these previous fights he claimed we'd had."

 _"...We did this yesterday, and the day before, I swear..."_

She felt Kazuma tense up slightly. "He said that...that I died. Twice. And he told us exactly how he did it."

"That's horrible!"

"You're telling me," he said gruffly. "Anyway. He said that he knew we were looking for him. That he already knew we were coming to try to kill him, and that he was waiting for someone. But he had to keep starting the day over, because I wasn't the one he was waiting for."

 _"The demon...we were after. He knew we were coming. He knew our every move, our every thought." Kurama shuddered. "And he said...we had done this before."_

Fear crept up over Yukina. "Who was he waiting for?"

Kazuma was silent for a moment. "He was waiting for Hiei. So he could kill him."

Yukina felt her eyes sting again, and she slammed down a mental wall- she was inot/i going to cry anymore. "But why would he want to kill Hiei?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "He just said some stupid riddle. 'I give you a token of truth, bittersweet. Come to me, and I shall grant life in exchange for life.' Or something like that, anyway. It was messed up, and nobody knew what he meant."

She bit her lip.

 _Kurama reached across Hiei's chest to gingerly pick up the black tear gem, and then held it out to Yukina. "Take it," he said hoarsely. "Now you know the truth. He would have wanted you to have it."_

It wasn't really a riddle...it was a message.

"This demon...he can see the future, can't he." She said, her voice sounding strangely flat in her ears.

"I mean, he didn't really say, but I guess he probably could."

 _'Come to me, and I shall grant life in exchange for life.'_

A heavy weight settled on Yukina's chest. From the moment Kazuma had mentioned this mysterious demon's ability to accelerate time with his youki, something in the back of her mind had clicked into place.

A decision had been made, without her even realizing it.

This demon had brought Kazuma back from the dead _twice_ in order to get to Hiei...to lure someone else there.

Because he wasn't really waiting for Hiei.

He was waiting for her.


End file.
